Caritas, De Liefde. NL-HlmNHA 1477 53008502

The personification of Charity stands in a classical landscape, nursing an infant while another child clings to her side. To the lower right, two toddlers share an affectionate embrace. The engraving uses the dynamic, swelling lines of the Haarlem Mannerist style to emphasize the muscularity and volume of the figures.

As the highest theological virtue, Charity represents 'Agape' or divine love, which Renaissance Neoplatonists viewed as the 'vinculum mundi'—the cosmic bond that holds the universe together and links the human soul to the divine.